Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and a method for managing conference sessions. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention provide a system and a method for providing services to waiting conferees.
Description of Related Art
Conference applications typically permit multiple conferees to join a single conference. More recently, conference sessions have included combinations of various kinds of media such as audio, video, text, and computer graphics. Thereafter, it became well known for individuals to communicate information by having a group of conferees within a conference.
Presently, there are numerous and diverse computer application programs for scheduling a conference session, reminding conferees of an upcoming conference session, controlling access of conferees to the conference session, and adding or removing various media streams to the conference session. The computer application programs range from rather simple client conferencing programs residing on a conferee's smart phone or portable computer, to rather complex programs residing on a server at an Internet site of a conference application service provider. This has resulted in proliferation of the conferencing services with diverse features and levels of complexity, which has further raised challenges of inter-operability among conference devices, such as a conference bridge.
Moreover, as more and more people started leveraging the potential of the conference services, various management issues have emerged. One of such issue arises in cases where a single conference bridge is shared among a plurality of conferees for making back-to-back sessions on the conference bridge. Sometimes, even two consecutively scheduled conference calls override each other due to overrunning of an earlier scheduled conference call. This typically results in conferees joining meetings they were not invited to, which further leads to security concerns in case of confidential conference calls.
Handling such clashing meetings due to conference session overruns typically requires the moderator to react once they occur, or once it is realized that a meeting is likely to overrun. The moderator needs to be aware of such event and react by either postponing or cancelling clashing meetings or by reducing scope of meetings by adhering to a more restrictive agenda. This requires manual intervention by the moderator of the conference, which is a time consuming process.
Further, sometimes, when conferees dial a conference bridge, they find the conference bridge busy due to overrunning of earlier calls. So, the conferees have to wait, thereby wasting some of their valuable time. Furthermore, the waiting conferees do not know how long they need to wait as they do not know when the overrunning call will end. This is further frustrating for them.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method for managing conference sessions and conferees to ensure secure, seamless, and uninterrupted experiences in a conference session.